


Forbidden Lovers

by mothermalfoy (slytherinxravenclaw)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Angst, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Love Letters, M/M, Marauders' Era, Non-Canonical Ages, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post-War, because I can't be bothered to google anything apparently
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-25 19:23:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16666780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slytherinxravenclaw/pseuds/mothermalfoy
Summary: After his father’s death, Draco discovers love letters that will completely change his entire life and his perceptions of the man he thought he knew. Forcing him to run into the one person he thought he could finally get over. Harry Poter.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Well, first and foremost it goes without saying that I do not own these characters and all rights belong to JK Rowling and Warner. 
> 
> The idea for this came to me sort of randomly, and I wanted to look a the Mauraders era in sort of a different way, showcasing an unexpected love affair between two characters juxtaposed against the modern day backdrop of Draco and Harry, who as of the start of this story haven't seen each other in six years since the war ended. 
> 
> Also, I feel like I'm terrible at tagging like why? Side note: I didn't actually know the age difference between Lucius and James canonically so in this story there's only a year between them.

Draco looked around his father’s study mournfully. It had been a week since Lucius’s death, and Draco hardly knew what to do with himself. The first few days, Draco had spent staring into oblivion, a mixture of an odd sense of relief and horror crashing over him in equal waves. Now, Draco  _had_ to keep himself busy. The Aurors had forbidden him or his mother seeing his father’s corpse after the kiss, and he was not allowed to be buried on the Manor grounds. Draco couldn’t even think to argue, so instead, he’d disappeared into his father’s study to take care of whatever the man had left behind. Draco had never wanted to disturb his father’s private possessions when Lucius had been alive, telling himself that his father would come home eventually and he’d hate to find his things messed about. Now, that hope was gone, Lucius was dead, and he would never worry about anything again. 

Draco took a seat at his father’s wing-backed chair, running his fingers across the old mahogany desk. Memories flooded over Draco, his father speaking to him about taking over family affairs, his father the night before he ended up in Azkaban during his fifth year, and the last few moments before the Aurors had captured him after the war. Draco closed his eyes, pulling out his wand, he opened the top drawer of his father’s desk with a tap of his wand to the wood. He was almost surprised how easily it opened until he realized the drawer contained mostly old ink bottles and broken quills. Draco snorted, tapping the bottom drawer with his wand. A red spark snapped at him, nearly launching his wand across the room. Draco chuckled to himself.  _That’s more like it,_ he thought, as he prepared to unravel an intricate series of curses his father had placed over the bottom drawer. It was clear even the Auror’s hadn’t bothered to uncover this series of curses. Draco flicked his wand, unraveling a particularly nasty curse. His father was nothing if not fastidious and Draco couldn’t help but miss the man as he made his way through the old man’s curses and hexes. Moments later, the drawer opened and Draco found a thick ledger with the Malfoy Family banking information, dating back to the fourteen hundreds written in it. Draco traced his fingers over the ledger, causing it to double in size.

Sighing, Draco examined the rest of the drawer. There was an old trinket box, and a simple book, Draco removed the book, examining it, a novel by the looks of it,  _Forbidden Lovers._ Draco raised an eyebrow, pointing his wand at the book. He had never known his father to read a novel before, wizard or otherwise. “Revelio,” he whispered. The book transformed, and seconds later, the book was replaced with a stack of letters. Draco’s eyes widened,  _Love letters?_ Draco had never known his parents to share love letters. Flipping the stack over, Draco examined the address on the back.

**_J F P_ **

**_12 Grimmauld Place_ **

Draco stared at the initials and name, willing them to make sense. There was something familiar about the address, though for the life of him Draco didn’t know why.

“Draco?” his mother’s soft voice startled Draco out of his thoughts, and he shoved the letters into his pocket, jumping to his feet.

“Mother. Sorry, I…” Draco swallowed, he didn’t even know what to say he’d been doing in his father’s study, surely she wouldn’t want him going through his father’s things so soon. “Do you… does the address 12 Grimmauld Place mean anything to you?”

Narcissa raised an eyebrow, staring at her son. “My Great Aunt Walburga owned that house. It was passed down through the Black family to Cousin Sirius and Regulus before…” Narcissa trailed off, the family had seen far too much death, and Narcissa could barely stand to think about it all. “Sometimes we visited as girls. Why do you ask?”

Draco shook his head. “No reason. I came across it going through some of fathers things,” Draco didn’t know what the letters meant, but something told him Grimmauld Place was significant. Smiling at his mother, Draco stood crossing the room towards her, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “I’m going out,” he said and with that, he turned on his heel and disapparated from the Manor with a loud crack.

Draco appeared several houses down from Number 12. Draco looked around, the area looked oddly familiar to him somehow, and he wondered if he hadn’t been there at some point in his childhood. Walking up Grimmauld Place, Draco paused as he reached Number 13. Looking ahead, Draco saw Number 11 standing in the place where Number 12 should have been.  _Where in the bloody hell is…_ Draco froze mid-thought as he stepped closer to the lawn where Number 12 ought to have been. Seconds later, the building appeared out of thin air. Draco gasped.  _A fidelius?_ Draco approached Number 12 and knocked. Seconds later, the door opened and a wizened old house elf appeared. The house elf’s large eyes widened at the sight of Draco.

“Master Draco!” the house elf said with a bow. “To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?”

“Kreacher? Who’s there?” came a familiar voice from the other side of the door. Draco looked up, with a gasp. Of all of the people Draco had expected to find on the other side of the door of his old family home, he had never imagined he would find, Harry Potter. Worse still, Potter was impossibly fit. Rippling with tan muscles, no doubt from Quidditch or Auroring or whatever it was Potter was doing these days. Draco swallowed, willing himself not to stare, Potter had a full black beard that made Draco’s knees weak, and he bit back a gasp. Harry bloody Potter was hot, and Draco was hard.  _Buggering hell._

“Oh. Malfoy. Er… how did you… are you alright?” he asked, eying the blond.

Draco knew he was staring, but he could hardly help it. The rough timber of Potter’s voice had gone straight through him and it was all Draco could do not to drop to his knees then and there. Shaking his head, Draco straightened up to his full height, pulling his eyes away from the other man with some amount of effort. It  _had_ been six years since he’d seen Potter after all, so it was not entirely surprising to find that he had changed a great deal. “I’m quite well, thank you,” Draco said. “Might I come in?”

Potter eyed him, for a moment Draco wondered if the other man might refuse him. It wasn’t as though they’d been friends over the last six years and Draco suspected were the situation reversed he wouldn’t have allowed Potter to just waltz into the Manor after showing up unannounced. Then again, if Potter  _was_ an Auror, he would hardly be able to refuse. 

To Draco’s great surprise, Potter merely shrugged, stepping aside and ushering Draco into the sitting room, past a large curtain that covered a section of the wall in the entryway. Draco raised an eyebrow at the curtain but decided it was better not to ask. Though he’d been temporarily distracted by Potter’s unexpected attractiveness, Draco  _had_ come with a purpose after all.

“So… er… what brings you here?” Potter asked as he sat down on the sofa, as far away from Draco as he could possibly manage. Draco pulled the stack of letters out of his pocket, handing them to Harry. Harry stared at the stack of letters for a long moment. “What is this?” he asked.

“Have a look,” Draco said gesturing for Harry to look at the back of the stack of letters.

“JFP?” Harry asked. “Who’s JFP? And why do they have my address?”

“I was rather hoping you could help me answer that.”

Harry opened one of the letters, skimming towards the bottom. Harry froze as he read his father’s name, and the initials clicked. James Fleamont Potter. “Where did you find this?” 

“Hidden in my father’s study.”

“You should really take a look at this,” Harry said handing over the bottom-most letter. Draco examined it:

__9 June 1975_ _

_Dear Luci,_

_It’s still hard to believe the year is already over. It seems like just yesterday we were serving detention together in Professor Slughorn’s class, and you were yelling at me for getting you in trouble. I still don’t know what possessed me to kiss you, but I’m so glad that I did. I can’t believe you’ve graduated and now I still have a whole other year stuck here without you. I know it’s only been a few days since we snogged on the train but I already miss you. Will we get to see each other again before the summer is over?_

_All my love,_

_Jamie_

Draco read the letter again just to make sure he’d understood it, then looked up at Harry, his eyes wide. “I…” Harry nodded. “I don’t suppose you think your father kept the letters,” Draco asked, barely above a whisper. Harry considered it.

“I wouldn’t even begin to know where he would have kept them.”

“Let’s start with the study,” Draco replied. Harry nodded ushering Draco towards the study. 

Draco looked around, staring at the desk several feet away.  _Well, it worked for me once,_ he thought as he made his way over. Harry took to the series of bookshelves that lined the wall, searching through several books as Draco examined the desk drawers, curiously. They weren’t as hexed, he noted. “The Order was headquartered here for a while,” Harry said as he stood on his tiptoes, to examine a curious book. Draco looked up, Harry’s tee had risen slightly, revealing a swath of strong, tan back, and Draco swallowed,  _fuck._

Harry pulled down the book.  _Bad Faith: Hexes and Dark Magic._ Harry smirked as he opened the book to reveal a stack of letters, similar to the ones Draco had brought over, hidden between the pages. Draco’s eyes widened as Harry handed him the stack and the two made their way over to the sofa there, sitting down together, closer than they’d been before. Draco opened the bottom-most letter. It was odd to see his father’s handwriting swirling across the page at him again, Draco swallowed and began to read his father’s letter aloud.

“12 June 1975. Jamie, This year with you has been more magical and special than I’d ever imagined. And while I can hardly believe it’s over myself, the good news is, we’ll be able to spend the hols together again. And of course, you’ll have more freedom next year. Then come the summer, I’ll be all yours.

“I will try to see you in July. Father expects me to begin courting the youngest Black daughter soon—Narcissa. She’s nice enough but she will never be you. Always, your affectionate boyfriend. Luci.” Draco stared up at Harry, swallowing hard as tears started to prickle at the edge of his eyes. Draco could hardly believe what he had just read. 


	2. Run Away With Me

Harry stared at Draco for a long moment after he’d finished reading the letter. It was all so unreal. Harry had always been under the impression that his parents had been madly in love.  _Had Sirius known? Surely he would have said something,_ Harry shook his head, forcing himself to pull out his father’s next letter, eager to know more. 

“June 19th, 1975. Dearest Luci, Mine? How I’ve longed to hear that word from your elegant lips. Would you be mine, truly? I know once we discussed what life might be like if we could be married. And I can’t help but think about that. I dream about it sometimes.

“Run away with me Luci. To hell with expectations. To hell with your father and,” Harry paused, swallowing. “Narcissa. I love you, and I only want to be with you. Remember when we talked about our future son? How you thought we should name him…” Harry froze tears beginning to run down his face as he stared at his own name on the page. “H—Harry,” he said. Draco gasped, covering his mouth with his hand. “How he would have my middle name, as was pureblood custom? We could have that Luci. Just the three of us. You, me, and our future Harry. I await the day I can hold you in my arms again my love. All my love, Jamie,” Harry blinked, wiping away tears from his eyes as he looked up at Draco, tears streaming down the blond’s face.

“Oh Harry,” he said, launching across the couch to wrap his arms around Harry’s shoulders. Harry took a deep shuddering breath, finding himself oddly comforted by Draco’s embrace, in that moment.

For a long time, the two just stayed like that, neither one wanting to break the spell that had fallen over them, as they considered the words they had just read and heard. However impossible the whole thing had seemed just hours ago, it was nothing compared to the impossibility that had found them now. After what had felt like an eternity, Harry cleared his throat.

“You should um… you should read your father’s next letter,” he said. Draco sat up, untangling himself from Harry, and grabbed the next letter from the stack.

“July 2nd, 1975 Dear Jamie, Of course I’d be yours darling. Only yours. Always, yours. Oh darling, I’m so sorry it took me so long to reply. Father’s been watching me like a hawk. Yet still I read your letter over and over again, and I find I  _do_ dream about our life. About our wedding, our Harry. Would he have your hair and my eyes? Or my hair and your eyes? I think I would be happy either way. Harry James Potter, I think I would want to take your last name as well.

“Lucius Abraxus Potter, has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? I suppose we could hyphenate, I rather love Malfoy-Potter as well. What am I saying? Can I  _really_ even consider this? Oh, Jamie, I’m not nearly as brave as you, my lion. I don’t know if I can be the first Malfoy to forsake my family for love. You don’t understand what father is like. Your father was lovely and so kind when I came to stay for the winter hols last year. Remember when he caught us cuddling in front of the fire? He didn’t even bat an eyelash. I’ve never known a warmth like that. Would they even care if you came out to them? If you told them we were together? I know that I would be disowned. My family may not be perfect Jamie but they’re all I have. Please don’t ask me to chose, I don’t think I’m strong enough to have to make that choice. Always, your affectionate boyfriend, Luci,” Draco exhaled a breath as he finished the letter and placed it carefully on top of the pile of already read letters.

“Who do you suppose he would have chosen?” Harry asked, wiping a tear from his eye.

Draco sighed, shaking his head, “We  _know_ who he chose,” he said. It felt strange to think, but somehow reading these letters was the closest Draco had ever felt to his father, and he couldn’t help but wonder if Harry felt the same. It felt all at once surreal to be reading love letters between their fathers, with Harry Potter, in his  _house_ no less, and yet, so many things suddenly made sense to him. “I keep thinking back to when I was four years old. I had all these stories about you. Harry Potter, the boy who lived. Gods I remember my father found one of them under my bed and snatched it away, tossing it into the fire and I just sat there and cried and cried. I thought I’d done something to anger my father, and all this time…” Draco laughed darkly.

“I still can’t believe your father came up with my name,” Harry said with a small chuckle.

Draco couldn’t help but laugh himself at that. It  _did_ seem rather absurd and yet, the evidence was all around them. How many letters even  _were_ there? The stack hadn’t shrunk even a little and Draco found, the more he read, the more he needed to know. “I wonder if our mothers knew?”

“They must have done,” Harry said.

Draco sighed, “I couldn’t possibly ask her, not now anyway. It’s only been a week since father died, I’m not sure she could handle the…” Draco swallowed not even sure how to finish the sentence.  _Scandal? Heartbreak? Truth?_

Harry sighed, “I’m so sorry Draco,” he said. “I wish I could have been there for you in some way.”

Draco shrugged, “It doesn’t matter,” he lied, staring down at the stack of letters again. “It’s not as if we were close. Hell, this is the closest I’ve felt to my father in my entire life.”

Harry laughed, “Me too. I always assumed you know, having my father alive would have meant I would know him better, and yet, there’s all this stuff that I’m just learning about him and I can’t help but wonder, did his friends know? It doesn’t seem like they were especially quiet about it, clearly, my grandparents knew to some degree. Did Sirius care?”

Draco considered this for a long moment. Who would his father have confided in? Certainly not Abraxus Malfoy, and likely not Mother. Lucius didn’t have  _friends_ to speak of. At least, not like Draco had. Pansy and Blaise. Certainly not like James Potter had either. The only person Lucius would have been able to trust was James. How lonely that must have felt, knowing there was almost no one in the world he could talk to about his love. No one he could ever reveal that side of himself too, lest they out him to his father, or worse, the Dark Lord. The thought of Lucius taking the Dark Mark seemed so antithetical to everything they’d read. What on earth could have happened to make Lucius follow that path? Draco had always wondered if his father had any trepidations about his following of the Dark Lord. He had always  _seemed_ sure in his convictions, but then, so had Draco, and Draco had never been less sure about anything than he had been the Dark Lord. Draco knew full well the depth of his father’s Occlumency skills. Lucius had ensured that his wife and son would be able to do the same, so that no one, not even Lucius himself would be able to invade their thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once more thanks for reading. If you enjoyed check me out on Tumblr.com/mothermalfoy. Twitter @mother_malfoy and Instagram @mother_malfoy


	3. Family Expectations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for implied physical abuse.

“Shall we then?” Harry asked, picking up the next letter from his father. It was longer than the others, Harry noted. Draco smiled, inclining his head for Harry to read.

“July 9th, Dear Luci, I could never ask you to chose between me and your family. I know how important your family is to you, but you must know how equally important you are to me. Because you are Luci. I _love you._ For you. Not because of your family or whatever heir you can produce. Can Narcissa say the same?

“I know it’s still a long way off before you’re meant to marry and that I should just enjoy the time we have, but the thought of losing you, of not having you again and having to live without you is more painful than I think I can bear. You always say I’m so brave and strong but it’s only because of you that it’s possible. You make me feel braver and stronger than I am, and I would do  _anything_  to protect you, my love.

“I know it’s selfish, but I want you all to myself. Because you  _are_ mine, Luci. And you know it. No one else’s. Not your father’s, not Narcissa’s. Mine. But I don’t want to lose you, even if it means having to share you with her. I spoke with my parents about us. I left your name out for your protection, but I told them that I had a boyfriend whom I was madly in love with and that I wanted to be with and neither of them cared. They just want me to be happy Luci. Happy with you. I think my father knows, he’s seen us together the most after all. We could be happy, like Sirius and Remus. We could have that. Just the two of us, after I graduate Hogwarts, you could move in with me here in Godric’s Hollow. Or we can get a place of our own. Imagine Luci, going to bed together every night and waking up together the next morning. Not having to sneak out at 3am to go back to the Gryffindor common room with the cloak. We could be a real honest to goodness couple. Walking outside holding hands. Kissing in public whenever we wanted. Never having to worry who might see us and rat us out. We could just be,  _us._ I’m terrified of what will happen to you if you stay in that house, Luci. You can’t lie to yourself forever and hiding who you are for the sake of your family will only make you resent them in the end. Especially Narcissa. You’re so much stronger than you realize my darling. My sweet, beautiful, Luci. Missing you more every day. Hope you can sneak away over the summer. All my love, Jamie,” Harry sighed as he looked at Draco. “I can’t believe he could give all that up.”

Draco laughed darkly, “You have no idea what it’s like to grow up with that level of expectation on your shoulders. Always knowing from the time you’re old enough to understand family that you are the one who’s meant to carry on the family name and legacy. To produce an heir and marry a pureblood witch. It’s all-consuming. Harry frowned.

“I’m so sorry,” he said.

Draco shrugged, “It hardly matters anymore, with father gone, I can do whatever I want,” he smiled weakly. “I just wish he’d had the same luxury.” Draco sighed, pulling out the next letter.

“August 1st, 1975. Dear Jamie,  _Gods_ how your last letter broke my heart. I don’t want to lose you either. I don’t want this life, I don’t want Narcissa, I don’t want any of it. Father introduced me to one of his associates, Tom. He gives me the creeps. He keeps talking about all this pureblood supremacy bullshit and joining his following. Father wants me to join him I think, but the thought of belonging to yet another monster fills me with dread. I don’t want to belong to anybody else but you Jamie. Because you’re right. I  _am_ yours. Only yours, and I can’t let my father continue to control me. I’m an adult now dammit! It’s time I stand up for myself and take charge of my own destiny, I want to be with the man I love. The only man who’s ever truly cared about me. The man who I  _know_ can give me more than anyone else could hope to. Oh, Jamie. I’m going to tell my father tonight, and then I’m going to come see you. As soon as possible. He can keep his money and his name. I’d rather be a Potter anyway. I love you my darling. Always, your affectionate boyfriend, Luci,” Draco gasped as he set down his father’s letter.

“You don’t suppose he really told him, do you?” Harry asked, suddenly feeling nervous for the man. Draco examined the next letter from Lucius in the pile.

“August 30th, 1975,” Draco said.

“What do you suppose happened?” Harry asked.

“I’m almost scared to find out,” Draco replied, reading on all the same. “Dear Jamie, Oh darling! I’m so sorry for the late reply. I can’t believe I actually told him, and then he hit me. He struck me with several unforgivables while he was at it, my body still feels jittery from the Cruciatus and the Imperius. Oh, Jamie, I think I’ve done something awful! If it weren’t for Sev, I don’t know what would have happened. My skin burns from that terrible brand Tom placed on me when I was under the Imperius. He says I belong to him now. Oh, Jamie what am I going to do? I can’t stay here but I’m terrified what will happen if I try to leave again. This is so much worse than if he’d just disowned me. I wish I could just be in your arms. Feeling safe once more. I know you don’t care for him, but I’m entrusting this with Severus. He’s the only one besides you I can trust to ensure this gets to you. Sev will know the right amount of dark magic to ensure your response will not be tampered with, so I’ll ask you to use him as your liaison. Plus, if the letters say they’re coming from Severus, my father won’t question it. I’m so so sorry my love. Your affectionate boyfriend, Luci.” Harry stared for a long moment at Draco, neither one of them daring to speak. Draco sniffed hard. “I don’t think I can do this anymore today,” Draco said, getting to his feet, wiping his eyes. Harry frowned.

“Draco are you okay?”

“No,” Draco shook his head. “I’m not. All this time I thought I knew my father and then to find out, my grandfather, my  _favorite_ grandfather no less, would do this to him? Would imperius his  _own_ son for daring to love another man? James was a pureblood and it wasn’t as if we didn’t have our share of poufs in the family. They just kept it quiet,” Draco was shaking. “I just, gods Harry you don’t know how long I’ve spent hating my own father for what I thought he did in the war. For the person, I thought he was, and to find out, his claim that he’d been imperiused during the first war was true! Gods and what it must have felt like to hear his lover was dead! I couldn’t,” Draco shook his head. “I couldn’t survive that.”

“Who’s to say he did?” Harry asked quietly. “You knew your father better than I did, but even I know the man he was in these letters? This sweet, affectionate, adoring, almost insecure man? That’s not the Lucius Malfoy I knew. He changed Draco. My father’s death  _changed_ him. Just like my mother’s death changed Snape.”

Draco laughed, “Harry, I  _know_ Sev. Arguably better than I know my own father, and I promise you, it may have made him more tragic, but it didn’t make him more bitter. He’s  _always,_ been this way. His fucked up family life did that to him.” Harry frowned. “Listen, I’m sorry to run out on you like this, but I can’t do this right now. This all feels much too real, and hits just a little too close to home.”

Harry eyed him, but Draco had clearly shut down, turning on his heel, Draco made his way towards the floo and vanished in a swirl of green flames leaving a very sad and confused Harry in his wake.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there. Thanks for reading the first chapter. If you'd like to see more of my writing visit me at mothermalfoy.tumblr.com or you can check out my Insta at mother_malfoy and Twitter also at mother_malfoy.


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